


Identity and other Deceits

by ZaliaChimera



Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: Gen, Identity, Identity Issues, Introspection, Runners
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-07
Updated: 2013-07-07
Packaged: 2017-12-18 00:57:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/873876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZaliaChimera/pseuds/ZaliaChimera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes it’s more than a number. Sometimes it’s everything you’ve lost too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Identity and other Deceits

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for the end of Season 1.

"Jody!"

She keeps up her steady pace around the training ground, trying to focus on keeping her breathing even without actually focusing on it because she knows she tends to panic too easily and then she can’t breathe like the breath gets all snarled and knotted in her chest.

 

"Jody!"

She’d liked it better when Six had been around. They’d run together a lot, the two of them. And Six always helped with the fear, telling stories and jokes until she forgot to think about breathing and it just came naturally.

"Oi! Four!"

She stops dead, startled as she turns around and sees Sam there. She gives a jaunty little wave and runs over, smiling at him. “Hey there. Didn't hear you there Sam."

He looks a little perplexed, a frown digging crinkles around his nose and he’d look cute like that, if it wasn’t for the lines around his eyes and the shadows beneath them. “I was calling you really loudly," he says, slightly reproachful and part of her wants to reach out and smooth the lines away. For all that he’s actually older than her, sometimes he seems very young and sometimes he seems older and tireder than anyone should. “A couple of times!"

She shrugs. “I didn’t hear you, I guess," she replies. “I get really distracted when I’m running."

"Well, as long as you don’t get that distracted when you’re outside today. Got a mission for you," he added, smiling.

She smiles back and nods, going into a few stretches to keep herself limber. “Alright. I’ll be there in a minute."

"Sure thing. Gates up in ten, Four."

"Right," she says vaguely, turning away to hide her frown. “I’ll be there."

She doesn’t really want to explain that she honestly hadn't recognised her own name when the number was more familiar.

—————

"Just fill it in," Maxine says, handing him a sheet of paper with carefully written questions in ink. 

"Didn't I already fill one of these out?" Simon asks, looking through the questions.

"You might have noticed that we did lose a decent portion of the hospital," Maxine says dryly. “Including our documents. I don’t want to cause any unnecessary medical problems because people couldn't be bothered to answer a few questions."

"Fair enough," Simon replies, taking the pen and it’s halfway to his lips before he catches the doctor’s glare and stops himself. 

Name. Date of birth, ethnicity, prior medical conditions.

He’s halfway through it before he realises that in the space for ‘name’ he’s written ‘Three’. 

It takes a moment of staring that feels like minutes before he remembers what he’s supposed to put and even then, he’s not convinced he’s got his middle name right.

It makes him feel sick, a little, and he can’t stop the chill that runs down his spine at it. Hard to be a number when conformity is everything you try to resist.

—————

Eight will always be Eight. Sam had decided that early on, when he’d first stuttered his way through a conversation with her. 

‘Call me Sara,’ she’d said, friendly like a shark and he’d resolved to never, ever call her Sara. Ms Smith he can just about accept when Janine says it, but in his head, it’s always Eight.

It’s why he doesn't catch her name at first, on the list of those lost and spends another day wondering when she’ll come home.


End file.
